Chapter 7
After a few days, I was starting to feel pretty sad. I mean, I was happy to see my friends again. I was especially happy that Sofie wasn’t angry at me anymore. That had been the worst feeling.
But it seemed like we had just switched places. Sofie was having a great time now. She was smiling all the time and having a lot of fun on the slopes. It was nice to see her so happy.
Meanwhile, I was hardly trying at all on my snowboard. My tricks were lame, my speed was slow, and I wasn’t really having fun.
Early on Friday morning, the day before the competition, we headed over to the half-pipe. That’s a long ditch on the slope for doing tricks.
Ana and I sat on the edge. We watched Sofie take a run through the pipe.
“Sofie has been practicing on the pipe a lot, huh?” I asked. I could tell from her tricks that she’d been working hard. She was landing much better than she used to. She seemed much more confident.
“Constantly,” Ana replied with a nod. “She spends all afternoon on the pipe, after school is out.”
“What about you?” I asked.
Ana shrugged. “I prefer the downhill, I guess,” she said. “It’s cool.”
We watched Sofie take one last trick off the lip. It was a perfect 360 with a front grab. I was impressed.
Sofie stuck the landing perfectly and then slid out the bottom of the pipe. Ana and I coasted down to meet her.
“That was great, Sofie,” I said. “You’ve gotten so much better at the half-pipe!”
“Thanks,” she replied. Then she looked at the big clock over the chair lift. “We better get to the lodge,” Sofie said, turning to Ana. “We need to get our names on the list for the Cup.”
“Oh, yeah!” Ana said. “Sign-up starts at ten this morning.”
The two of them turned and glided toward the lodge. I watched them for a minute.
“I can’t believe I’m not going to be in the Cup,” I muttered to myself. Then I turned and followed my friends to the lodge.
By the time I got to the lodge and took off my board and helmet, my friends were standing in front of the sign-up list. I walked up and stood behind them.
“There,” Sofie said, putting down the pen. “I’m ready for the Cup.”
Ana picked up the pen and scrawled her name on the sign-up list. “Me too,” Ana said.
Sofie nodded. “This will be my year!” she said happily.
Then Sofie turned and saw me standing behind her. She took a breath and sighed. “Tess,” Sofie said. “This is dumb.”
“What is?” I asked. For some reason, I couldn’t look her in the eye.
Sofie laughed. “You know what,” she said. I felt her arm around my shoulder.
“I was being a big baby,” Sofie went on. Then she said to Ana, “Give me that pen.”
Ana glanced at me, and I shrugged. She picked up the pen and handed it to Sofie.
“Thank you,” Sofie said. Then she scribbled something on the sign-up list. “There.”
“What did you do?” I asked. I looked over her shoulder. She had written my name on the sign-up list!
“Sofie!” I said. “But I promised not to be in the Cup this year.”
“I know,” Sofie replied. She picked up her helmet and snowboard. “But like I said, that was dumb.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks, Sofie,” I said. “And to be honest, you’re so good on that half-pipe now, I’m pretty worried about my chances anyway.”
Sofie laughed. “Then we better get out there and practice,” she said. “You don’t want to embarrass yourself.”